On Nov. 4, current “Saturday Night Live” cast member Chloe Fineman answered fan questions on Looped Live during a 45 minute Q&A session.
The event was the fifth and final part of ETSU’s Five Night Concert and Comedy Festival sponsored by Buctainment. According to Carter Warden, the director of ETSU Student Activities and Organizations, a series peak of 264 students, faculty or staff were in virtual attendance that night.
The event was moderated by Jake Nordwind, another fellow comedian from Los Angeles who was a part of Groundling’s Sunday Company. As an administrator for the event, Warden found Nordwind’s moderations to be comical as well as helpful in carrying the Q&A along.
“I thought the moderator was very entertaining himself,” said Warden. “He would drill down from the original question something she would say, like the gum and different things, and he made that a comedic thing. I really enjoyed it.”
Fineman answered questions from all the participating colleges, including several questions from ETSU. One of the questions she answered from ETSU was how her time with the Groundlings was different than what she does today with “SNL”.
“SNL is like a cool hodgepodge because you have stand up comedians, impressionists, character actors, people who come up with crazy ideas,” Fineman said. “I think it is really different; [With] Groundlings I could never do impressions. You couldn’t really do video stuff, so SNL has been like heaven in the sense that you can like make, you know, video sketches, which I love to do.”
Throughout the event, she explained that she started out using Instagram as a platform to spread her work and still uses it for that reason today. She discussed her favorite musical guests and celebrity hosts, as well as her own role models.
“I mean I really loved Adele,” said Fineman. “I just thought she was so game. My favorites are musicians who are like, ‘I do not know how to act’ and then they whip it out. She was just really fun and joyous, and her singing close to me was heaven.”
Select participants were given the chance to meet Fineman for a short amount of time following the Q&A, one of which was ETSU graduate student Jessica Owens. In her allotted time, she talked about Dollywood and took a screenshotted selfie with her.
“I got a little like starstruck when I talked to her, because I was just so excited,” Owens said. “I asked her, ‘Have you ever been to Dollywood?’ And she said no, but it’s like one of her top goals of her life.”
The next major event will be the SGA fall concert featuring country artist Brett Young on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Students and employees can register online or make reservations to watch the concert with friends in limited locations on campus. For more information, email sgaevents@etsu.edu.
